Parents will often reach out and offer items even without a specific request. Over the years, I’ve received so much yarn, fabric, unwanted craft and art supplies, large decorations for bulletin boards, beads, magazines, and even canvases!

If you are new to a classroom or simply want to collect more of these kinds of materials, try passing out an Art Supply Donation Flyer at Open House or Back-to-School Night.

Free Art Supply Donation Flyer

Sign up for my email newsletter and receive 6 different styles of Art Donation flyers that you can pass out to families. These lists are fully editable in Canva. You will be able to edit them to add new things to the list or remove things you don’t want! You can change out the clip art, colors and fonts.

You will need a Canva Pro or free Canva Educator account to edit, otherwise you can use the non-editable PDFs. (A regular free Canva account won’t allow you to use some of the graphics.)

Other ways to stretch your budget:

• Thrift stores: These can be great places to hunt for arts and crafts supplies at a low cost.
• Creative reuse stores: Some cities have secondhand art supply stores filled with donated materials. Search for “creative reuse stores” or “art reuse stores” to see if there are any near you.
• Garage sales: I’ve found lots of building toys, figurines for drawing, and art supplies at garage sales.
• Free groups: Join local Buy Nothing, free, or neighborhood groups in your area. People are often giving away supplies and other items that can be useful in the art room. If there’s something you’re looking for, don’t be shy about asking! You might be surprised by what people are happy to pass along.

The post Art Supply Donation Flyer | Art Class Wish List appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

My goal at the beginning of the year is to help students feel comfortable, build (or strengthen) connections, introduce classroom expectations, and start creating art right away! In this post, I’m sharing engaging books, icebreakers, routines, and art projects for each grade level. These ideas can be spread throughout the first few weeks of school.

I hope these ideas give you a great starting point for planning your first weeks of art class!

🎁 Free First Week of Art Class Printables

Planning your first week of art? Grab these two free printables:

• Amazing Art Coming Soon bulletin board signs
• “If I Were A…” Getting To Know You worksheet – Students doodle little drawings answering prompts such as “If I were an ice cream flavor, I would be..” or “If I were an animal, I would be..”

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Free Back-to-School Art Printables

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My Goals for the First Day of Art Class

• Learn student names (if they are new to the school or in Kindergarten).
• Introduce routines and expectations.
• Practice classroom procedures.
• Build classroom community.
• Create successful artwork.
• Get students excited about art class!

What I Do Before We Make Art

• I welcome students into the art room and show them their assigned seats. I always use assigned seating because it makes attendance easier, helps me learn names more quickly, reduces social anxiety of finding a seat, and allows me to place students where they’ll work well together.
• Next, I show a short video slideshow that introduces the art room. Using a video ensures every class hears the same information, even after repeating it several times throughout the day. Plus, it saves your voice. This video is only about 5 minutes long.
• This video covers classroom routines, including how to enter the room, what a typical class looks like, and where students can find supplies, smocks, sinks, the recycling bin, the early finisher station, and where artwork is stored.
• Finally, we review the art room expectations and behavior plan. I also introduce my ART system: I have the letters A, R, T as magnets on my whiteboard. If the class becomes too loud, I remove one letter as a warning. If all three letters are removed, we take five minutes of silent work time as a focused reset.

Note: You will want to repeat and practice all of these routines, procedures and expectations often over the next few weeks.

My Favorite First Day of Art Class Books

So, now that we’ve gone over the expectations and class procedures, one of my favorite ways to start the school year is by reading a fun back-to-school children’s book. These are some of the books I pulled from my collection that are perfect for the first few weeks of school. Many of them are also great to keep on hand for those extra five minutes at the end of class throughout the year.

Amazon Affiliate links are used, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

First Day of Art Class Books

• Studio: A Place for Art to Start
• Making Art
• I Am an Artist
• If You are an Artist
• Art is…

Art Supplies

• The Art Box (introduces art supplies)
• The Crayon’s Go Back to School (the book I ordered from this link was pretty small and would be hard to read in front of a class, but maybe you can find a larger version or a video read-aloud.)
• Pencils on Strike!

General Back to School Books

• All Are Welcome
• This is a School
• This School Year Will Be the Best

Creativity & Growth Mindset

• A Little Bit of Oomph
• Regina’s Big Mistake
• No One Saw
• The Curious Why

Name Books

• Your Name is a Song
• My Name

There are so many more wonderful art books you could read to your students. I have a HUGE list of 150+ children’s books for elementary art.

Getting to Know You Icebreakers

I often do a quick icebreaker activity at the beginning of the school year. A couple of ideas include:

• Getting to Know You Bingo: Find someone who… Students move around the room and have classmates sign their papers if they fit into one of the categories.
• Art Class Scavenger Hunt Place many different kinds of media around the room and have students find the media and then create a little doodle inside each box. You can make your own worksheet for this by drawing boxes with a place for each type of art material, or you can use the sheet I made linked above.
• This or That: Write options on the board. Have the students stand for the first option or give a thumbs up for the second option. Cats / Dogs, Summer / Winter, Markers / Colored pencils, Pizza / Tacos, Realistic / Cartoon, Math / Science… etc

First Day of Art Projects by Grade Level

I usually start an art project during the first or second art class. Getting kids creating right away is a a great way to build excitement for art!

Kindergarten – I Had Art Today drawing & Patterned Initial

Free Download: I Had Art Today worksheet I always have the Kindergarten students draw a picture in the framed printout that says “I Had Art Today!” You can see some examples of this kindergarten first day art activity at an older blog post of mine. It also has a space for you or them to write the days of art class as a reminder for the parents. (I have a PDF for one art class day or two). The first day of kindergarten worksheet is a free download in my TPT shop. You can have them draw a picture of themselves as an artist or a picture of their favorite things.

Free Download: Patterned Initials Students will color patterns in the large letter for the first letter of their name. To prepare for this project, I print off the first letter of each of the kindergartners’ names.  For a free printable alphabet, download the block letter outlines here. Then I demonstrate how they could fill in their letter with a variety of patterns, designs and colors.  You could use only crayons.  Or you could branch out to markers and oil pastels.

Pop Art Letters

If you want to have a student handout, pattern idea sheet, letters with divided sections and examples, you can grab the full Pop Art Patterned Letters resource.

Buy Now

1st Grade – Simple Name Design

Name Designs are always fun and a good way to help you remember your students’ names. I have a whole round-up of name designs for all the different age levels. For 1st grade, a very simple name design works best. In the photos below, I’m showing two examples. In the simpler version, the students will write the letters of their name as usual, and then outline with a thicker marker. The older kids can write their name in a simple style, or try drawing in bubble or block letters. Then, will draw pictures of things that they like in the background.

2nd Grade – My Summer Sunglasses

Print out a template of sunglasses. Inside the sunglasses, children will draw things that remind them of summer or memories they have from this summer! You can use any sunglasses template, or grab my handouts at my TPT shop.

All About Summer

Draw and write about your summer! Share memories from your summer break.

Check it out!

Free Download: Positive Affirmation Posters

This is another fun project for 2nd grade and up! Download the FREE PDF with Inspiring Phrases for Kids. Create posters of these to hang in your hallways and share some positive words!

Check it out!

3rd Grade One Word Art Project

Students will choose one word for their year – a word that represents who they want to be this year, a word that inspires them or represents a personal goal. They will then create a colorful piece of word art that brings their chosen word to life through creative designs, patterns, and/or illustrations.

An optional way to introduce this project is by reading the One Year for Kids book, then brainstorm possibilities for a word they might choose. Next, the students will draw the letters of their words and then color it to make it unique and creative! Younger kids (1st-3rd grade) will probably relate to this book better than the older kids, but I think the message (and the idea of choosing one word for the year) applies to anyone.

I also think the older kids will be able to come up with some really detailed and unique word drawings, so use your judgment when it comes to deciding which of these art projects to do at each grade level.

One Word of the Year Art Project

If you’d like step-by-step handouts for this project, reflection and planning sheets and a list of 90 word choices, I have an art resource here!

Check it out!

4th Grade – All About Me Artist Trading Cards

All About Me Artist Trading Cards: The small size makes these cards quick and approachable, while the miniature format adds a fun twist that students enjoy. You can cut or buy your own blank trading cards. They are 2.5″ x 3.5″ miniature artworks. Then, have students draw or collage things all about themselves! You can store and display these in plastic trading card sheets for binders. If you are interested in pre-printed templates with prompts for this project, check out my All About Me Artist Trading Cards!

5th Grade All About Me Shoe

For the fifth graders, they will love this All About Me shoe art activity! Print out shoe templates. Brainstorm symbols and imagery that tell about their personality, favorites, hobbies and interests. Draw these designs on the shoe and add color and patterns to make it stand out and express their individuality!

All About Me Shoes

You can make these shoes using any shoe template, but if you would like to make this easy I have step-by-step directions, 2 shoe templates with prompts (and some blank ones also), a Symbol Web brainstorming sheet, a Designer Shoe Sketch Page and a general symbol idea sheet that can be used with ANY all about me project.

Check it out!

If you would like to have all of my favorite Back to School Art resources in one place, check out my BIG Back to School Art Bundle.

Now that you have some specific art projects for each grade level, I thought I’d share some easy first day drawing prompts if you want to keep it simple!

Easy First Day of Art Class Drawing Prompts

One Giant Doodle: Each student adds one drawing to a giant class poster. Makes a fun hallway display.

Completely Ordinary Drawings: Draw four ordinary things that tell us about you. Think about everyday things…not your biggest accomplishments or favorite vacation. Maybe you ride the bus to school, have a pet cat, wear glasses, or always carry a water bottle.

If I Were A…: This quick drawing activity is a fun, low-pressure way for students to express their personalities. Simply give them prompts like If I were an ice cream flavor… or If I were an animal… and let them draw their responses. You can download my FREE printable worksheet at the bottom of this post.

Doodles of Summer Memories: Draw a collage of doodles of things that reminded you of your summer – could be abstract or realistic

Something I Did Not Do Over Summer Break: Flip the usual back-to-school drawing prompt on its head! Instead of drawing something you actually did over the summer, students create a picture of something they didn’t do. I didn’t go scuba diving. I didn’t fly to the moon. I didn’t wrestle an alligator. The sillier, the better! It’s a fun way to get kids excited and enthusiastic.

Decorate a Sketchbook Cover: If you are doing a sketchbook with your students, this is a fun first week of school activity.

Draw a Wish for this School Year:

I LOVE this new book I just got. The book is This School Year will be the Best!

The kids in the book share a wish they have for this year: “This year I’ll win the science fair.” “I hope I’ll make friends in my new school.” Read the book and then have students share a wish they have for this year and draw a picture of it!

More Back to School Art Ideas

Looking for even more first-week ideas? Last year, I wrote another back to school blog post featuring some of my favorite All About Me art projects. Check it out for even more activities to help fill the first month of school!

Also, feel free to scroll through the ideas below.

Here is another Name Design project that would be good for older kids!

Doodled Name Designs

Create a design using your name. Add patterns and doodles to make it look creative and unique.

Check it out!

Here are all of my recommendations of low-prep art activities that are perfect for back to school:

If I Were A…: Make a list of objects or ideas and have students respond to the prompts with a drawing. “If I were an ice cream flavor, I would be…” or “If I were an animal, I would be…” Enter your email address in the form below to receive this download.

Here is a set of posters you can hang on blank bulletin boards to let everyone know that new artwork is coming soon! This is also available in the FREE download below!

Classroom Banners for Art Decor!

I had so much fun designing these. These are great for hanging up a quick bulletin board or decorating your classroom. You can grab these Canva banner template designs here.

The best part is they are fully editable in Canva. You can change the text to say whatever you want and you can edit colors, clip art and fonts.

I printed mine at Walgreens and they were ready in one hour! I wrote out step-by-step directions with screenshots to order at Walgreens, but you can also order them at a different printing place. Look for coupon codes online, I printed mine for $13 each. You can see all of my banner designs here!

Whether you’re planning your very first art class or simply looking for a few fresh ideas, I hope this (long) list gives you some inspiration for a fun and successful start to the school year. The first few days are a wonderful opportunity to build classroom routines, get to know your students, and spark their excitement for creating art.

I’d love to hear from you! What are your favorite first-day or first-week art activities? Share your ideas in the comments below!

The post First Day of Art Class: Getting to Know You Activities and Art Projects appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

You could also use these ideas in mixed media art projects or journals with students. Whether used during art class or in an art club, journaling can encourage self-expression, reflection, mindfulness, and personal storytelling while helping students build confidence. Many students find collage and journaling less intimidating than facing a blank sketchbook page, making it a great way to encourage creative risk-taking.

For over 20 years, my favorite form of art-making has been art journaling, though my journals have always been more like little collage books. When I first heard about junk journaling, I realized my art journals had a lot in common with junk journals, even if they didn’t fit the definition exactly. My own journals are somewhere between a junk journal, an art journal, and a collage journal.

But the beauty of junk journaling and art journaling is that there are no strict rules. I love combining found treasures with painted papers, magazine images, stickers, and other creative materials to create layered pages full of color and texture. Some of the items I use are free and others are items I bought. I’ve even collected scraps I’ve found on the floor at school to use in my journal!

What is Junk Journaling?

A junk journal is a handmade book that is filled with collected bits and pieces, things that might normally get thrown away or forgotten. The pages are decorated with things like collected treasures, papers, stickers, junk mail, collage, writing and drawing to create a personalized expressive book.

Some people use junk journaling like a scrapbook or diary, and others use it just as a form of creative expression. Pages can be layered, colorful, simple, nostalgic, expressive, thoughtful, messy or random!

Junk journaling is a way to collect bits and pieces and give new life to things that might have been thrown away. You can collect items from your daily life to glue to your book.

What are the Benefits of Junk Journaling?

• Just like most creative activities, junk journaling can reduce stress! It’s a calming creative time.
• It encourages you to see things in new ways.
• You can express yourself without fear of whether or not it’s “good enough”. No mistakes! Messiness is part of the charm.
• Junk journaling lets you use up scraps and items from your art supply stash. Budget-friendly!
• This analog activity is a great alternative to spending time scrolling online.
• It helps you slow down mentally.
• It’s a great hobby to share with friends! You can swap materials and share ideas.

You can sit down for 10 minutes, glue down random scraps, write a few thoughts, add color, and walk away feeling calmer than when you started.

What Kind of Book Should I Use for My Junk Journal?

For this journal, I used an old hardcover book, removed the pages and sewed in some new signatures with a variety of papers. I took a local class on this and reconfirmed that sewing is not my forte, so after this, I’ve been buying them off of Etsy.

You can also create an altered book by applying gesso to the book pages first. You might purchase a sketchbook, a children’s board book, a composition notebook or make a journal with binder rings. I’ve even seen people use old planners!

What Materials Can I Use in My Junk Journal?

So what should you start collecting for your junk journals? I’ve put together a list of my favorite junk journaling supplies, some free and some paid.

(This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them at no extra cost to you.)

Free Items: There are so many free items you can collect for your junk journal: receipts, packaging from toys and food, junk mail, business cards, flyers, patterns from the insides of security envelopes, paint chip samples, cancelled stamps and greeting cards.

Things in Your Daily Life: As you go throughout your day, keep an eye out for anything that might be fun to glue in your junk journal. Catalogs, postcards, handwritten notes, collectible cards and paper scraps are great to add to your journal.

Vintage Ephemera: Other items I love to use in my junk journals are children’s book illustrations, postcards, vintage magazine pictures, game cards and vintage ephemera (like handwritten letters and postcards.) I love going to garage sales, antique stores and used book stores to find fun books to cut up for my journals.

Words & Quotes: Start cutting out words and collecting text that you can stick on your pages. You can find quote books, print out typed quotes and words or cut words from magazines!

Decorative Papers: Patterned and painted papers are something I collect as well. My absolute favorite books for background papers are these Paper Play books by Amy Tangerine! They are so colorful and gorgeous.

You can paint your own papers, purchase scrapbook papers or make colorful doodles on paper to use in your pages. One fun thing I’ve been trying lately is photocopying fabric and ribbons on my scanner printer for a textured look (see the photo below.)

Stickers: Stickers are one of my favorite things to add on my junk journal pages! Here are some of my favorite sticker books. Another thing I LOVE doing is printing my own stickers on the Liene Pixcut S1 sticker printer. In these stickers below, I used images I found on Canva to print out for my own personal journals. I’ve had this sticker printer for over a year and the stickers print so beautifully. Note: if you look at the reviews on the listing, there are some low reviews due to the stickiness of the paper. Those are old reviews and this issue has been resolved. Other companies I recommend for stickers are Five Below, Pipsticks, Moonbow and Scribble Prints.

Where to Find Free or Low Cost Things for Your Junk Journal

Free: I’ve been collecting all kinds of things from my daily life to use in my journal: greeting cards, paper scraps, junk mail, product packaging, wrapping paper scraps, random things I find on the ground, fortunes from fortune cookies, notes and catalogs. Join Buy Nothing or free Facebook groups in your area, because people are always giving out free things. Tell people in your life that you are interested in random leftover art supplies – when people know you are looking, they might keep an eye out for things you can use.

Low-Cost: I’ve found all kinds of things at garage sales, thrift stores, antique shops and used book stores (the Half-Price Books in my area has a vintage section.) I also find things on Facebook marketplace or Facebook sales groups.

Paid Supplies: You don’t need to buy anything for junk journals, but if you love collecting art supplies as much as I do, my favorite sticker books, papers and junk journal supplies are in this list of recommended art supplies.

Free Checklist of 100+ Things to Save for Junk Journaling

I created a printable list of 100+ items you can collect and save for your junk journal. Enter your email and I’ll send it over to you. You’ll also be subscribed to my newsletter, but you can unsubscribe any time.

Free Download: 100+ Junk Journal Treasures

Enter your email for the free printable checklist of 100+ Things to Save for Junk Journaling!

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Easy Junk Journal Page Ideas

Sticker Bomb!

Now that you have all of your junk journal supplies, creating the pages is the fun part. Here’s a super easy way to get started. Choose a color scheme, such as rainbow or all one color (monochromatic) and then simply fill a page with stickers, overlapping or creating a design.

Layered Collages

Use some of the items you collected from the list and layer pieces that you think are interesting. They can be all in one theme, or they can be random and messy. In the image on the left, I used decorative papers in the background. I added cardboard packaging from the Funko Pop! toy I got as a present. (Hello Kitty is my favorite.) I also cut out pieces from a magazine and children’s book.

On the right side, is another collage I made using a large floral sticker sheet as the background, a used postage stamp, stickers, ribbon and a vintage photograph. This was a page I made in February around Valentine’s Day.

Pages Filled with Words

Type words or cut them out of magazines. You could also use one of my printable sheets of words or quotes! Another thing I like doing is to take a word with an interesting font and cut it across the middle, so you can’t tell what the word is. Then, combine different types of typography to make an abstract collage.

A Junk Journal Page with Magazine Snippets

Another one of my favorite ways to make journal pages is to cut out snippets of colors and textures from magazines. You don’t need to cut out whole images, you can just cut out parts of them and piece them together like patchwork. This can be your background to add more images on top or you can leave it just how it is. This was an idea I tried in a workshop by Daisy Yellow, although she uses layers of paint – which is another option to add texture.

Shape Punches Junk Journal Page

I am in love with these scraps that I punched into stamp shapes. It can be addictive to just punch more and more shapes. Here are links to the stamp shape punchers I tried: Small, Medium (this one embosses it so part of it is slightly raised) and Large.

More Ideas for Junk Journal Pages

Ready to Start Junk Journaling?

If you’re ready to start junk journaling, don’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect journal – just begin!

• Messy pages are okay!
• Don’t wait for the perfect supplies, use what you have.
• Experimentation is the point – there are no mistakes.
• Work in layers. Whenever you have a few minutes you can add some pieces.
• Keep a stash of junk journal treasures to pull from.
• Not every page has to be finished.
• Try not to compare your pages with others.
• Celebrate imperfection as you create meaningful art from recycled materials! Have fun!

FAQs about Junk Journaling

If you liked this post about Junk Journaling, you may also enjoy these blog posts:

• How to Make Zines with Kids

• How to Make a Vision Board

• Neurographic Art: A Mindful Drawing Practice

The post Junk Journaling for Beginners: Page Ideas, Supplies, and Inspiration appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Keep reading for 17 easy end of year art activities!

Artist Trading Cards

What are Artist Trading Cards? ATCs are miniature works of art that are 2.5″ x 3.5″. They are made to be collected and traded. You can make them with any theme or material you’d like. Anything goes! Kids love to create miniature works of art. Some of my students like to make cards that are inspired by the card games Pokemon or Magic, characters with special abilities and powers.

The ATCs in these two pictures are ones that I recently made.

I used to regularly swap and collect ATCs. Here are some examples from my Artist Trading Card collection!

Here is an easy doodled ATC tutorial if you don’t know where to start.

I have some Artist Trading Card templates here and some All About Me templates here. If you’d like to buy pre-made blank cards, the Apostrophe brand (Amazon Affiliate links are used in this post) is my favorite. I have tested MANY of the blank ATC brands on Amazon and these are my favorite for most media. Some of the other brands are really bad and smear terribly. Sharpies and collage work best on the cards.

You can also make ATCs just by cutting cardstock paper down to 2.5″ x 3.5″, but I feel like that can be tedious. Another option is to draw out a sheet of artist trading cards (either with a ruler or by tracing an existing card), photocopy on to cardstock and have the students cut out their own cards.

Kids also like drawing on blank index cards, so that is another option for miniature artworks.

Mini Sketchbooks for an End of the Year Art Class

Miniature art is so much fun! Just like artist trading cards, mini sketchbooks are especially appealing to kids. My students loved making them and many even asked for extra books to take home and continue filling with drawings.

I saw this idea shared in a Facebook group, and the theme in the post was “Things That Bring Me Joy.” The pages were filled with drawings of things that make the artist happy. I wish I could remember which teacher originally shared the idea… if it was you, please let me know so I can give proper credit!

I gave this theme suggestion to my students, but they had freedom to make pages with any theme they wanted. Here is the box of 50 mini sketchbooks on Amazon. The pages are pretty thin and markers bled through to the other side. But you could use crayons or colored pencils.

End of Year Art Memory Books & Zines

Just like mini sketchbooks, mini foldable books are also a huge hit with kids! Accordion books and zines are fun, flexible and interactive art projects that give students lots of creative freedom.

I just finished writing a comprehensive beginner’s guide to zines! Check out the blog post if you’d like to learn more about what zines are, different ways to make them, and ideas for using them in the classroom.

If you’re looking for a quick print-and-go activity, you might also like the Memory Book templates I created. They include easy accordion book and zine-style activities that are simple to prep and fun for students.

End of the Year Coloring Banners

Easy End of the Year Art Centers

Art centers are always a favorite with kids, and they’re relatively easy to pull out during those busy end-of-year days.

If you don’t already have many center activities, summer garage sales can be a great place to look for inexpensive materials like building toys, blocks, puzzles and other hands-on creative supplies.

Here are some of my students’ favorite art centers:

• Pipe cleaners and pony beads
• Shape punchers
• Lego bricks
• Building toys like wooden blocks, magnetic tiles, magnetic blocks
• Texture plate rubbings
• Washi tape or stickers
• Origami

I have compiled 43 different art center ideas in these Art Center Signs. Even if you don’t want the signs, if you click through to the listing and look at the preview, you can see the list of all the center ideas.

Washi Tape Designs

This blog post explains what I mean by using washi tape.

Basically what we did was peel and stick different washi tape designs. Then, we used Kwik Stix to color in the sections. Some of the students enjoyed peeling the tape off and others left it.

If you are going to peel it off, you need to place it a few times on your pants to get it a little fuzzy and less sticky, so it doesn’t tear the paper.

Sidewalk Chalk Creations

Drawing with sidewalk chalk is a classic end of year art activity. Here are a few ideas:

• Choose a theme for your students to draw or leave it open-ended.

• Write positive messages.

• Create hopscotch style games and pathways for kids to walk and travel on.

• Create a giant chalk town – add houses, cars, roads, shops and more.

• Write farewell messages and thank you notes to teachers.

• Draw a mandala.

• Make a summer themed chalk mural.

• Create a drawing with one long continuous line.

Art Game – Pass the Page Doodles

How this works: The goal is to fill a piece of paper with a page of doodles in one theme.

Each student has their own piece of paper. They choose the theme for their paper. Write that theme on the top of the paper or the back of the paper.

They start the drawing with something in that theme. Then they pass it to the person next to them. That person adds something to the page of doodles, keeping the same theme going. Keep passing around the room until everyone’s page is filled up!

Theme Ideas: weird monsters, summer things, cats, tiny foods, silly faces

Outdoor Observational Drawing

Go outside with a clipboard, pencil and coloring materials. Here are some ideas for what to draw:

• Give students a nature scavenger hunt and then they can draw the items they find.

• Draw the playground.

• Draw the clouds or a landscape scene of what they see.

• Draw the school building and then turn it into: a castle, a spaceship, an underwater school, or a monster headquarters!

• Or, you can just sit outside and draw whatever you like. Sometimes a change in scenery can be a great way to jumpstart creativity.

Bookmarks

Design a bookmark on a blank card. My students LOVED these. The tassels make them extra fun.

Free Growth Mindset bookmarks!

Kindness Coloring Bookmarks

Of course, precut bookmarks from cardstock will also work! Hole punch and attach some ribbon.

Art with Nature

Go outside and gather up some natural materials such as leaves, grass, sticks and wildflowers. Create art on the ground using the natural materials you found.

Another option is to glue these materials to a piece of paper. Add drawings and additional details using paint or other art supplies.

Here are some ideas in an old blog post with three art examples that involve drawing leaves, ink spraying leaves and collages with leaves.

Paper Hats with Scraps

Use up the paper scraps leftover from the year’s projects!

Cut a wide strip of construction paper that is long enough to go around a child’s head. Use different paper manipulation methods to create a fun paper sculpture hat. Glue these to the band.

When finished, adjust the band to fit a child’s head and then staple it together! If you need some ideas for paper techniques, I have an example of a paper techniques on a poster here!

The picture below is from when my own kid was in early elementary school and did this during a summer art class. After this, I tried it with my own students and it’s pretty fun!

Recycled Art Sculpture

Here’s another highly engaging art project for kids: building recycled art sculptures, either independently or in groups.

This activity can be a great way to use up your recycled donations such as paper towel tubes, popsicle sticks, corks, wooden scraps, egg cartons, bottle caps, and any other found materials you have available.

For these sculptures, we glued the pieces together first and let them dry. Once dry, the students painted them and added embellishments such as sequins, feathers and other decorative details.

I’ve found that kids love building and everyone loves this open-ended activity.

Shrinky Dinks

If you haven’t tried shrinky dinks, these are always a crowd-pleaser! This is also a great project for summer camps. I’ve found that coloring with paint markers looks really nice, but you can use other drawing materials like colored pencils. I bake these in my oven at home. Follow the manufacturers’ directions carefully and never let a student operate any sort of oven.

A tip for baking: the natural baking process involves them curling up. When they are curling, leave them in longer. They should uncurl on their own and then you know they are ready. If they are slightly stuck, I use a metal butter knife to pull them apart and press them down to flatten them.

Summer Sun with Sunglasses

This cool sun with shades is perfect for the end of the school year or even for summer art classes!

The sun was made with Kwik Stix paint sticks and the sunglasses were colored with markers.

Find the full lesson tutorial and sunglasses templates at my TPT.

Summer Bucket List

Looking for an easy end of year activity that you can just print and hand your students? Have your students create and draw their own summer bucket lists!

Students can fill the bucket with drawings of things they want to do over the summer.

This FREE download includes both a blank version and a prompted version. A beach ball outline is also included, which students can color, design however they’d like or fill with even more summer-themed drawings.

Summer Bucket List

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Wave Goodbye to Kindergarten!

This is one of my favorite end of year projects for Kindergarten. I do it almost every year.

On the first day, create a page of fingerprints.

To do this, dip ONE finger into a cup of water. Then, rub your finger around in a watercolor pan. Make fingerprints across the page.

After the fingerprints have dried, trace your hand on construction paper and cut it out. Glue it to your paper.

Cut out the printed poem and glue that down!

The poem and full tutorial is available at this Kindergarten Wave Goodbye blog post.

I hope this has given you some good ideas for the end of the year in art class!

The post Easy End of Year Art Activities for Kids (Simple Art Projects with Low-Mess!) appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

What Is a Zine?

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small, self-published booklet that people create and distribute in limited quantities. They are DIY projects made by hand with simple tools such as a photocopier or home printer. Many are low-cost to print, stapled or bound together with simple methods.

One of the fun things about them is that there’s no single “right” way for them to look. That’s why I love to make zines with kids. Here are a few from my own collection for inspiration.

Zines can be all different shapes and sizes. They can be color, black and white or collaged. They are personal, expressive and may be based on a special interest.

My favorite kinds of zines to collect are ones with art and collage.

On the right, the zine I am holding is a collection of sketches by the artist Andrea Joseph.

People make these booklets to share their thoughts, tell stories, express opinions, or connect with others who share similar interests. They are often shared or traded with others.

Why Make Zines?

They give students a chance to be creative without worrying about making everything perfect. Each one turns out completely different, which makes them feel personal and unique.

• They are an easy, super low-prep art activity.
• They build confidence, since there are no wrong ways to make a zine.
• Zines are open-ended and encourage self-expression.
• The materials are inexpensive – simple copy paper works well.
• They are flexible and work for a wide range of ages.
• Students stay engaged and motivated.

What Can You Put in a Zine?

This is what makes zines so much fun – there are so many different directions students can take with these. Each page could be completely different or they can all go together with one theme. You can keep it totally open-ended or give a little structure depending on your group.

• Drawings and doodles
• Collage
• Comics
• Stories
• Quotes, poems or song lyrics
• Lists
• Personal observations and reflections
• Opinions about a cause

Zine Materials

You probably have everything you need to get started.

• White copy paper
• Markers, colored pencils, crayons
• Scissors and glue

Optional materials:

• Patterned or colored paper scraps
• Magazine pictures
• Stickers (Amazon Affiliate links) or Washi tape
• Collage ephemera
• Zine templates & How to fold handout

Zine Ideas for Kids

• All About Me Zines
• End of Year Reflection Zine
• My favorites…
• A comic about a story that happened in my life
• An imaginative story
• A collage of quotes

How to Make a Zine

The video from Tate Kids is so great at explaining to kids what zines are!

A few things that help this go smoothly:

• Show a few examples (even simple ones).
• Offer both blank pages and optional prompts.
• Emphasize that there is no wrong way.
• Let fast finishers keep going with more zines.
• If you’re using templates, print extras. You’ll have kids who want to make more than one.

Step 1: Fold Your Paper

Fold the paper so it creates 8 small pages.

If you want to make this part even smoother, you can use a pre-made template so students can jump right into creating.

It’s important to understand how the order of the pages will end up after you fold. Here is a guide. This guide is also included in the Free Artist Quote zine download (below).

Step 2: Plan Your Zine

Choose a theme and plan out what you want on each page. Start by lightly sketching ideas or create a quick rough draft.

Step 3: Create

Draw, write, color or collage! Encourage students to fill the page and add lots of details.

Step 4: Display and Share

After finishing, photocopy the booklets to share with others – students love trading! Don’t forget to make a copy for yourself to add to your classroom zine library. They also look great displayed standing open in a display case or on a shelf.

How to Fold a Zine

Here’s my video all about how to fold a zine. A step-by-step handout is also available in my zine template resources.

Free Artist Quote Printable Zine

I had so much fun creating this Artist Quote Zine! I have a FREE printable download of this zine just for you. I made this to demonstrate steps of making a zine and then I thought other art teachers might enjoy this! You can print this out, fold it and then use it as an example when you are teaching about zines. You could also print some out for your students if they want a copy.

If you scroll down, you can enter your email address to get your free zine!

How I Made This Artist Quote Zine

Step One: First, I found some art quotes online, typed them up in different fonts and then printed them out. I cut out the quotes using regular and decorative edge scissors.

Step Two: I used magazine images and patterned paper to create backgrounds for my pages

Step Three: Then, I added more collage materials on top of the backgrounds.

Step Four: Finally, I glued on the quotes and then added some stickers for extra fun.

Here is the finished result! I love how it turned out!

Grab your own free copy of this zine. Simply print and fold! This is a great option to use as an example of a zine if you don’t have time to make your own or if you just want another one to add to your collection.

Included in this download is a blank version of the quote zine, which you or your students can color and design your own artist quote zine. The PDF also has a blank zine template and the zine layout which shows you what each page is.

Grab this Printable Zine!

Enter your email for the free printable “Create More Art” zine.

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Zine Templates for Kids

Are you looking for an easy way to teach about zines in your class? I made some prompted zine templates.

The first is an All About Me zine package, with prompts to get to know your students. These are perfect for the beginning of the year or really at any time.

The other two sets are End of the Year memory zines. One is an End of the Year Art Class reflection zine, so kids can share about their year in art. The other set is a general School Year Memories zine. These templates are an easy way to make zines with kids.

Get Monthly Zines Sent to Your Mailbox!

Cindy Ingram, whom I’ve known through blogging and art education for years, recently started a zine subscription club! (affiliate link) She makes a zine every month and sends it via snail mail straight to your mailbox. They are so cooool!

Cindy is an author, artist and founder of Art Class Curator. Her book, Art is About Being Whole, is also available on Amazon. I interviewed Cindy about her book in a previous blog post.

You can sign up for your own subscription here!

If you’ve never tried zines with your students, this is a fun, low-pressure end of year art activity. Let me know if you try it!

More Zine Resources

Zines I bought at last year’s zinefest.

Zines my students made

More zines on my Instagram

The post What is a Zine? A Beginner’s Guide to Making Zines with Kids (+ a Free Printable Zine) appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Now that Spring is here, you might be looking for art projects that celebrate the fresh air, birds, flowers and signs of the season! I love incorporating the beauty of nature in our art lessons. In this blog post, I will share 13+ Spring art projects for elementary kids that are perfect for the end of the year! These are all ideas that hopefully give you a starting point for developing your own Spring art curriculum. It’s a long blog post, are you ready?

Spring Art Projects for Kids: Birds!

1. Nest of Baby Chicks Spring Art Project

Create a sweet nest of baby chicks! To make the chicks, we traced a roll of masking tape to form the body, then added a smaller traced circle for the head. Students cut out their own beaks and drew on the eyes to give each chick its own personality.

After watching a quick demonstration, students drew their own nests and brought them to life by layering different types of brown textured paper for a realistic, cozy look.

2. Model Magic Bird in a Nest Sculpture

To make this bird sculpture, start by creating the nest. Open a brown paper lunch bag and roll the top edge downward toward the table. Use your fingers to gently shape it into a nest form.

Next, pour a lot of glue inside the nest and fill it with a variety of materials such as tissue paper, yarn, shredded paper, and other textured items.

To form the bird, shape the body, wings and head with Model Magic. You can use colored Model Magic or paint it later! While it’s still soft, poke feathers into the back of the bird. A little bit of liquid glue will help it stay in place. I’m thinking of making a video tutorial of this, let me know if you’d like to see the process.

Spring Flower Art Projects for Elementary Art

Flowers are a beautiful sign of spring! There are so many creative art projects you can explore using flowers as inspiration. I’ve created several of these as full print-and-go resources, complete with tutorials, helpful tips, and ready-to-use templates.

1. Spring Vase of Flowers Art Lesson

With this lesson, you can discuss flower still life paintings throughout art history. Students can draw their own vases by folding the paper in half, tracing one half of the vase and cutting it out to reveal a symmetrical vase.

Use Sharpie markers and watercolor paints to draw and layer your own flowers. Practice drawing types of lines or a variety of shapes on the vase to add in more art concepts.

If you’d like a full tutorial with steps written out, templates and tips, you can check out the Spring Vase of Flowers art lesson, which includes an art history slideshow and step-by-step presentation to use with your students.

2. Spring Flower Wreath – perfect for Mother’s Day or any special occasion!

Create a beautiful wreath of flowers that would be perfect as a gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a special grandparent or other adult. Start by making the base: poke a hole in the center of a paper plate and carefully cut out the middle to form a ring.

Next, draw and paint a variety of flowers in different sizes and colors.

Once they are dry, cut them out and layer them with additional flowers made from solid-colored construction paper.

Stack and combine the flowers to create depth, then glue them onto the wreath. Finish by adding a special message at the bottom to make your wreath extra meaningful.

Want to save time? If you’re looking for a ready-to-use version with templates and guided steps, I’ve included everything in the full flower wreath resource in my TPT shop.

3. 3D Pop-Up Flower Garden – Spring Art Project for Kids

Create a colorful 3D flower garden! Start by folding a long piece of green construction paper into an accordion fold to form the base. Then, draw flowers with Sharpie and paint them using watercolor paints.

Once dry, cut out the flowers and layer them with additional flowers made from solid-colored construction paper. Stacking and layering the pieces adds depth and visual interest to the artwork.

Next, cut out leaves and stems from construction paper and glue them into place. To finish, add a thin strip of green construction paper along the bottom (cut into fringes) to create the look of grass.

If you’d like a ready-to-use version of this lesson with step-by-step directions, templates, and helpful teaching tips, you can find the full resource in my TPT shop.

Watercolor Doodle Flowers

These watercolor doodle flowers were one of my most popular blog posts from the past!

All you need are watercolor paints and some fine tip black pens.

Check out this watercolor doodle flower blog post to see the full tutorial!

If you scroll the carousel below, you can see all of my full Spring art resources, including two Earth Day art projects!

Expressive Flower Drawings Inspired by Takashi Murakami

Your students will love creating their own smiling flower faces inspired by Takashi Murakami’s iconic flower artworks. Simply print out examples of his artwork and see what your kids come up with!

If you need a ready-to-use slideshow about Takashi Murakami, here is a Google slides presentation I made during Covid for a distance learning art project!

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Close-Up Flowers

This is a lesson I have done with 2nd graders! I provide a variety of flower reference images, and students choose one to enlarge and fill an entire square sheet of paper. As they work, I demonstrate how to use variations of a color (such as red, dark orange, light orange, and yellow) to blend and create depth in their flowers.

To enhance the lesson, here are a couple of great read-alouds you can share with your class:

Through Georgia’s Eyes – Rachel Rodríguez (Amazon affiliate links)
My Name is Georgia – Jeanette Winter

Bouquet of Flowers inspired by Picasso

Are you familiar with this lovely, simple artwork by Picasso? I love it so much! This is a very easy project to do with your youngest students. Draw simple stems and flowers using Kwik Stix paint sticks. Trace and cut out hands from construction paper and glue so they are holding the flowers.

Spring Children’s Books to Go Along with Art Projects

If you know me, you know I love a good children’s book! In fact, I’ve written a blog post with 150+ of my favorite books for kids. I’ve gathered up some of my favorite Spring children’s books to share with you! These are beautiful books that are fun to read aloud to introduce a Spring art project. I also have rotating selections of books available for kids to look at during free time.

• Planting a Rainbow is a beautiful book that can go along with a rainbow flower art project or any flower lesson! I love Lois Ehlert’s books.
• Spring Sings for The Grouchy Ladybug is another book from Eric Carle that shows his painted paper collage style. This book is best for the youngest Pre-K & K ages.

• The Hidden Rainbow is a simple counting book showing the colors of the rainbow in the garden.
• The Flower Thief – If you like the Leaf Thief or the the Pumpkin Thief, here’s a Spring version in this series.

These are my two favorite Spring books. If you want to grab any of these books, these would be my top picks.

• Spring Parade is a book with such gorgeous illustrations!

• It’s Spring is also a beautiful book all about Spring. She also books for Winter and Fall. Hopefully, Summer is coming too!

Insect Art Projects

1. Ladybug Collage: Dip a fork in green paint and stamp grass across the paper. Cut a large black circle (body), a large red circle (wings) and a smaller black circle (head). Glue together, then add spots with black Sharpie and eyes with a white gel pen.
2. Ladybug Drawing: Very simple, just show the students how to draw a ladybug on the board and have them draw their own ladybugs. I did this during zoom classes during Covid.
3. Caterpillar Drawing: Teach about rainbow order. Demonstrate how to draw the caterpillar on the board and have the kids follow along, then color in rainbow colors. This was another distance learning lesson.
4. Insect Collage: Offer a variety of colored construction paper. Students will try to make a creative symmetrical insect. Show a diagram or draw a diagram of the parts of the insect (head, abdomen, thorax, antennae). Have them cut out shapes for the insect parts. You can use construction paper crayons, metallic markers, or paint dotters to decorate the insect.

5. Firefly art projects are fun as we get closer to summer. I use neon oil pastels for coloring these in. I have a free tutorial download with handouts for this project.

6. Butterfly Art Projects

I recently wrote a whole blog post all about butterfly art projects and some beautiful children’s books about butterflies.

Check out the butterfly art blog post here!

Insect Children’s Books to Go Along with Art Projects

Looking for a couple of insect books for these lessons?

• How to Build an Insect is a fun book about the parts of an insect and shows a kid building an insect – a great way to tie in a STEM project.
• On Beyond Bugs! is a book from the Dr. Seuss people – their nonfiction books are great!

Looking for even more spring art ideas?

I’ve shared several variations of Symmetrical Butterfly art projects in this blog post that offer plenty of creative inspiration.

This was another open-ended, successful Earth Day project from last year. If your students enjoy working with watercolors, this is a great project to try!

You may also like:

The post 13 Spring Art Projects for Elementary Kids + Spring Book Read Alouds appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Butterfly Books for Kids

I’m going to start with this one, because it is my absolute favorite of the books I found. This Pop-Up Butterflies book by Usborne is so amazing! The butterflies just pop off the page. I think the pictures speak for themselves. (Amazon Affiliate links have been used, thanks for supporting this blog.) The book is short, but gorgeous. It also gives interesting information about butterflies.

The next book is Papilio, a book about an adorable caterpillar who shows emotions while growing up into a butterfly.

The next book is My, Oh My– A Butterfly! a non-fiction book from the Dr. Seuss people. Most people think of the silly rhyming Dr. Seuss books when they think of Cat in the Hat, but I’ve come across some really great Dr. Seuss non-fiction books. There’s 50 in the series! My other favorite one is the Map book.

Here are two more great butterfly books. A Butterfly is Patient is also a book with beautiful illustrations. There are several other nature books in this series if you like this one.

The last book I wanted to share with you is by Gail Gibbons, called Monarch Butterfly. She also has a lot of non-fiction books for kids and I love her illustrations.

Butterfly Art Projects for Kids

Creating butterfly art is a perfect idea for the younger elementary classes! It is a fun Spring theme and you can introduce symmetry as well as types of lines in this art lesson.

To set the stage, I often do a caterpillar art project where we practice mixing the primary colors to make the secondary colors. We use Model Magic for the mixing. If you have never mixed colors with Model Magic before, the colors mix beautifully together. There’s a lot of different rainbow/color mixing projects you could do with this material.

This butterfly project offers several creative options. The main focus is designing a symmetrical butterfly. Students can draw their own butterflies or use templates.

Different types of media can be used for this project: watercolor paints, markers, colored pencils, metallic markers or paper strips!

Want more butterfly art ideas?

You might like these past posts:

• Butterfly Paintings
• Butterfly Origami gift for a retirement
• Clay Butterflies (I did this one again this year, but did not have them trace their hands, we used templates instead.)

If you’re looking for more Spring art projects, check out my Spring Art Projects Bundle!

The post Butterfly Art Project for Kids + 5 Beautiful Butterfly Books to Inspire Your Lesson appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.